April 1, 2012 - April 7, 2012 posts

For Latino fans of the Angels, sure, there's a passion for the team. Yes, there's a devotion to baseball.

But there's something else: the love of family.

Dozens of fans of the Angels – whether they're from families deeply rooted in Orange County or immigrants just catching hold of America's pastime – told us that they have made the team part of their family lives. A day at the ballpark is a family activity.

Like a family story or a recipe for mole, parents, tios and grandparents pass along their affection for the team and years of knowledge about the Griches and Salmons they followed to new generations who are tweeting about the Hunters and Pujols of today.

Juan Manuel Galvan, 43, of Fullerton, is a school custodian. He was tossing a ball with son Nehemiah, 4, outside the Angel ticket office recently. A school custodian who immigrated from Michoacan, Mexico, more than 20 years ago, he said he appreciated seeing a number of Latinos on the roster.

"Maybe one day I can see my boy here, too," he said.

"As a young girl I wasn't very athletic, nor did I understand sports all too well, but going out as a family to watch the Angels was as exciting as going to Disneyland," said Erika Carmona of Anaheim. "So now, fast forward years later, at 25, I'm still a hardcore Angels fan."

Credit unions and other financial institutions would gain new members and customers if they adapted to the needs of the growing Hispanic market, the group "least served" by the financial sector, an expert in the subject said.

"The credit unions must understand that the face of the U.S. consumer is changing and that for there to be growth, (they) must adapt to new consumers, instead of forcing those consumers to adapt to (them)," Miriam De Dios, vice president of Coopera Consulting, in Des Moines, Iowa, told Efe.

De Dios emphasized that, according to reports, 50 percent of U.S. Hispanics do not have a traditional relationship with financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, but rather use alternative financial services, generally at higher cost.

"Because of that, there's a great opportunity," she said.

The Mexican-born De Dios grew up in the United States, where she saw her parents "suffer due to many things, including not knowing the U.S. financial system."

That personal experience led her to become interested in financial matters and five years ago she joined Coopera, attracted by the vision of founder Warren Morrow.

Morrow was born in Mexico to a Mexican mother and an American father and spent part of his childhood there before moving to Tucson, Arizona. Later, he studied biology at Iowa's Grinnell College, where, in 1999, he founded the non-profit Latino Leadership Project that, after several transformations, became Coopera Consulting.

Coopera is now the property of the Iowa Credit Union League.

Morrow died unexpectedly in February at age 34. "It was something unexpected and impacted us deeply. Warren was a very passionate person and believed in the idea of bringing dignified financial services to the Hispanic community through the ... credit unions," De Dios said.

She feels that she and her colleagues should continue with Morrow's mission to "help the community to get ahead."

One of the ways to do that, she said, is to educate Hispanics about traditional financial services.

But the other option is to educate the credit unions about the need to implement a systematic process to serve the Hispanic market.

"Having a strategy to better serve the Hispanic community is a need nowadays for the savings institutions and credit unions. It's something good they should do and also it's an investment in their future," De Dios said.

By attracting new Hispanic members, credit unions can reduce the average age of their members, thus creating a "sustainable future."

"Hispanics are a solution to the challenges of the financial institutions, since they represent a young and new market with a growing buying power and an appetite for a variety of financial services. The credit unions need the Hispanics, and the Hispanics (need) those credit unions," she concluded.

In 2011 with our national online data set we summed the number of hours per week that different cultural groups spend on different communication activities in English and in another language. These included:

● Listening to CD’s● Listening to the radio● Listening to MP’3’s on any device including an iPod or mobile phone● Listening to music on television● Using social media like Facebook or Twitter● Listening to Internet radio like Pandora or Last.fm● Talking with friends

While these are not all the communication activities a person can engage in, the list should be a good indicator of overall communication activities by different cultural groups. The graph below reports the total number of hours per week reported in the average by each of the cultural groups in English and in another language. Clearly, the other language used would be almost universally Spanish in the case of Hispanics.

Average Sum of Diverse Communication Behaviors

The results are quite striking. Hispanics in general spend more time per week in the communication activities measured, and those Latinos who answered in Spanish (HS) reported spending more than 60 hours in media and communication per week, almost double the amount of time than non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). What is particularly salient is that the amount of time Latinos who prefer Spanish engage in English language communication is almost the same as non-Hispanic Whites. These Latinos are on “double communication duty.”

It is also important to emphasize that while Hispanics who prefer Spanish spend at least half of their time with English media and communication activities, they still spend the other half with English language communications. So it is not one language that is dominant for these online consumers, they split their communication world in two.

Hispanics who prefer English (HE) spend about 25% of their time with Spanish language media and communication, and they are the second most communicative group of all, with more than 50 hours per week. The third most communicative group is that of African Americans (AA) with about 43 hours per week, followed by Asians (A) with about 38 hours per week. Non-Hispanic Whites reported the least amount of time per week engaged in communication activities. A next posting will break down each of the activities. Here, however, the striking overall differences in amounts deserve some discussion.

The sheer amount of time spent on communication by Latinos in general should be of interest to marketers as these consumers should be especially available to receive commercial messages. We have known for some time that Hispanics are more welcoming of marketing messages, but this analysis substantiates the amazing communication openness of Hispanic consumers.

Further, marketers that produce entertainment content should find here substantiation of the enormous potential of this Latino audience. Social media use and personal interactions not only serve for the reinforcement of social ties but they also spread the word about marketing efforts.

In this case as in others we have reported earlier, we find that Hispanics and minorities in general tend to be more communicative than their non-Hispanic White counterparts. This should give some food for thought to marketers who think that their future still resides in the so called “general market.”

The data for this study was collected during March 2011. This online sample was comprised of 500 respondents per segment, for a total of 2,500, based on quotas by gender, age, and geographic location. DMS Insights managed the sample and data collection and they graciously contributed their effort to the academic program of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. Melanie Courtright, previously with DMS Insights championed this effort. She is now with Research Now and continues to support our research. This study was conducted by the faculty and students of the graduate Multicultural Marketing Communication course offered by FSU.

As soon as landed in Austin to call it home I began experiencing for myself that many businesses had no clue how to cater to a multicultural customer base, let alone effectively reach them through marketing and advertising efforts.

The big Hispanic ad agencies were fiercely competing to call Fortune 500 companies their clients; some of them were actually doing a good job at helping businesses connect with Latino consumers. Still, there was a problem; most of the non-Fortune 500 companies, especially small to medium-sized ones remained mostly unaware on what they needed to understand in order to attract and retain Hispanic customers.

This was an opportunity I simply could not afford not pursuing.

By early May 2004, after some time of living in the U.S., I had a huge compilation of data building the strong case for any company to reach out to Hispanics, along with specific strategies on how to effectively connect with them and turn them into lifetime customers. My goal was to help my current clients, mostly small, owner-operated businesses spread across America, get a step ahead of their competition and capitalize in engaging with this growing demographic, the soon to become, largest minority in the nation.

My friend Dave Young strolled into my office and immediately inquired about the somewhat organized stacks of paper rising from my desk. After patiently listening to my explanation, he left the room with an almost unnoticeable grin in his face.

A few minutes later Dave stormed back into my office and literally dragged me into one of our conference rooms. It so happened that he had been fiddling with the idea of utilizing blogs as a cost-effective way to build a platform for his consulting business, and he had just setup juantornoe.blogs.com for me and wanted to share the basics on how to run it. That’s how Hispanic Trending was born.

Almost 8 years have passed; the blog has gone through several changes, including various looks and feels, but for the most part, its logo had remained consistent.

For some time now, I’ve been feeling the need to update the logo and description to more clearly express the site’s intent. As you know, the urgent, unfortunately, sometimes takes precedent over what is important, and weeks, months, even years went by with all things remaining unchanged.

It wasn’t until very late last year, after hiring Rafael Picco as designer for Cultural Strategies, that I finally acted upon this desire. I sat down with Rafa and gave him a not so brief debriefing on Hispanic Trending and asked him to think about a new logo for it. Not too much time had passed when Rafa showed me his proposed concept.

It communicated so clearly what the blog was doing. It was a simple impression of a hand, but within it you clearly observed the map of Latin America, from Tierra de Fuego to Tijuana. It was one of those “Aha!” moments, the ones you don’t have that often.

Individuals with a Latino heritage are leaving a strong imprint in the United States of America, and Hispanic Trending has been documenting it for the last 8 years.

Hispanic Trending’s ultimate goal is helping businesses and individuals better understand the Latino community, its diversity and complexity. An integral part through this learning process is understanding how Hispanics are redefining the general market, how they are leaving an imprint in America.

Hispanic Trending will continue documenting this process, now with it’s new logo and slogan.

Good news for Spanish-speaking e-bookworms — Amazon on Thursday launched a new Kindle ebook store just for you.

The store, "eBooks Kindle en Español" was designed for U.S. Spanish-speaking users and currently includes more than 3,000 titles. Among the titles available in the store are Spanish-language bestsellers "El Alquimista" by Paulo Coelho, "Cien años de soledad" by Gabriel García Márquez and "Juegos del Hambre" by Suzanne Collins. Along with the new book store, Spanish-speaking readers now have access to extensive help pages, along with phone and email customer support in Spanish.

"We're excited to introduce Spanish language storefronts on all Kindles, as well as a dedicated store for our Spanish-speaking customers in the U.S.," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, said in a statement.

U.S. users can set their Kindle store to Spanish on any Kindle device. To do so, simply change your language to Spanish under Store Language Preference in Manage Your Kindle.

In the new Spanish Kindle store, users will also be able to find exclusive nonfiction work, such as "El Libro de los Manuales," from Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, the best-selling Spanish-language author on Amazon.com. The store also includes books from Nobel Prize winners Gabriel García Márquez, Camilo Jose Cela and Mario Vargas Llosa, popular titles from best-selling authors such as Julia Navarro, Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Isabel Allende and more than a thousand free Spanish titles.

"Humankind needs stories the way it needs oxygen and the impact of ebooks is formidable and is transforming the entire book industry, as well as readers," internationally best-selling author Isabel Allende, said in a statement.

People are increasingly reading ebooks, but printed books still dominate, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. The survey of 2,986 Americans ages 16 and older, released Wednesday, found that 21 percent of Americans have read an eBook in the past year, up from 17 percent last year.

Moreover, the increasing availability of e-content is causing some people to read more than they had in the past, the survey found. But while nearly 30 percent of American adults currently own an ebook reader, the majority of those who don't have one are not interested in buying one.

Turns out, it really is the economy. Americans have voted with their pocket books, or with their cynical view toward Washington, for the last three election cycles. But the ramifications of the worst recession since the Depression has altered more than our mood -- it's changing the very makeup of the electorate itself.

The virtually unprecedented migration between states that kicked off the 2000s slowed dramatically during the recession. The collapse of the housing bubble tied more Americans to their homes while the promise of jobs in a new city dried up. When migration picked up again, it was less-affluent Americans who moved to find employment, many of whom had lost their homes to foreclosure or their jobs to recession.

That change in migration patterns has had two repercussions that will last far into the next decade. The recession means some states will send smaller delegations to Washington and the expected surge in Hispanic participation might not materialize as soon as expected.

Even as the Hispanic population has boomed, the rate of Hispanic voter-participation has not kept pace. The Census Bureau estimates there are 31.8 million Hispanics over 18 years old in the U.S., 21.3 million of whom are citizens. Hispanic population grew by 15.2 million over the last decade, accounting for more than half the nation's total population growth during those 10 years, the Census Bureau reported. But only 10.9 million -- a paltry 51.6 percent -- are registered to vote.

That's far fewer than the 62.8 percent of black Americans and 68.2 percent of non-Hispanic whites who are registered to vote, according to the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. And consider the ramifications: The Census Bureau reports there are at least 6 million Hispanics who said they are not registered to vote. That's more than half the margin by which President Obama beat John McCain in 2008.

The number of registered Hispanic voters has actually fallen, from 11.6 million in 2008 to 10.9 million in 2010. The William C. Velasquez Institute, based in San Antonio, shows the number of Hispanic voters has actually dropped in 11 states over the last two years, including in battlegrounds like Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Colorado.

The recession "hits blacks and Latinos and the lower middle-class people first," Antonio Gonzalez, who heads the Velasquez Institute, told the Houston Chronicle. "When people lose their jobs or homes, they usually have to move elsewhere. When you move, you have to re-register, and we suspect that didn't happen in 2009-10.

"The law of unintended consequences is at work here," Gonzalez told the Chronicle. "This administration, like the last one, didn't have an answer for home foreclosures. The unintended consequence is a dampening of Latino voter turnout."

Minorities have been harder-hit by the recession than whites. While the national unemployment rate stands at 8.3 percent, it's much higher for blacks (15.6 percent) and Hispanics (12.5 percent).

The smaller number of registrants has led to a drop in the Hispanic share of the electorate; Hispanics made up 9 percent of the electorate in 2008 and 8 percent in 2010. Minorities tend to turn out at lower rates in midterm elections than they do in presidential elections, but the drop at a time when the Hispanic population is booming should trouble Democrats whose fortunes depend on rising Hispanic registration and turnout. In 2010, the Democratic National Committee spent tens of millions of dollars on turnout among Hispanic voters in key states. Those voters were key to electing Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and reelecting Nevada’s Harry Reid. This year, Democrats need a similar surge to make up for losses among white voters.

Meanwhile, the recession has had a significant impact on the way Americans move around within the country. Population changes early in the decade suggested some states would see changes in the size of their House delegations. Some demographers believed Oregon was in line to receive a new seat, based on migration to the Portland area and its suburbs. Instead, the extra seat in the Pacific Northwest went to Washington state. Minnesota, by contrast, was seen as a likely candidate to have its delegation reduced by one, but instead the state kept all of its seats. Projections showed Texas likely to receive just a single seat, but faster-than-expected growth means its delegation will increase by four.

The economic recession altered the way Americans view government. It has also changed both the makeup of the electorate and the delegations that head to Congress. There's little either party can do to influence reapportionment, but it's clear Democrats need to continue a robust investment in building the Hispanic electorate. So far, their efforts have not borne lasting fruit.

A short post yesterday highlighted a recent essay from a writer who is part Filipina and part German-Irish, but is often presumed to be Latina – and therefore, to speak Spanish. Only that she can’t.

Spanish makes her nervous “because I can’t speak it, and I look like I should,” author Sabina Murray wrote on The Nervous Breakdown website. “If you speak to me in Spanish, it feels like an invitation to something great that, unfortunately, I can’t accept.”

As expected, the post resonated with readers who posted comments about their own experiences with the languages people expect them to speak – or not – based on how they look.

The “or not” is a biggie, too. Take it from yours truly, a native Spanish-speaking Latina who is all too often asked “How did you learn to speak Spanish so well?”

Here’s the comment that Elson Trinidad posted:

Yes, I get this ALL THE TIME as a Filipino. Ironically, though I’m fluent in neither, I know more Spanish than Tagalog. Having grown up all my life to embrace my Filipino heritage, it bugs me a bit when people speak to me in Spanish…but I’m also a native Angeleno and it just comes with the territory, so if I understand what they’re saying and can respond in Spanish, I’ll do that.

What REALLY annoys me is if I tell a (nearly always) 1st generation Filipino that I’m a kababayan (fellow Filipino) and they’ll be in disbelief, and in fact doubt my Filipino-ness. Maybe it’s because I have an ‘American’ accent, which smashes their paradigm of what defines a ‘Filipino,’ but sadly in my life I’ve been told by waaaaaaaay more Filipinos that I’m “Not Filipino” than white people who have told me I’m “Not American.”

On the other hand, the other week, I was buying oranges from my local farmer’s market and the Latino vendor said “Maraming Salamat!” to me as I paid for my purchase. I smiled.

That made my day.

And on the other side of that coin, this comment from Engrpax, who identifies as Norwegian-Mexican-Jewish and speaks more Spanish than his half-Peruvian son in law, who people assume speaks Spanish but doesn’t (confusing enough?):

I, on the other hand, am Anglo appearing, (blond hair, blue eyes, I’m of half Norwegian descent and I’ve been told that I spoke Norwegian before English, although I don’t remember it at all), but I am also of Mexican descent, and I speak Spanish with some ease…

Nevertheless, I was also raised in a half Jewish family, where Yiddish was the other family (business) language. I’ve also formally studied Arabic, French, and Japanese with varying results.

I have an adopted (Anglo appearing) daughter who is of Irish/Italian descent who also easily speaks Spanish; she is married to a man who is of German/Peruvian descent, who looks very Latino, but doesn’t speak Spanish at all. In social/public situations, he is often addressed in Spanish, and she has to reply for him.

Oh, yeah, we live in So. California, where Spanish IS the other language…

More thoughts, anyone? Have you ever been presumed to speak a language that you don’t speak because of your appearance, derided for not speaking your native tongue, or thought not to speak it (when you do) because you don’t fit an expected stereotype?

Ortiz Botánica could be the waiting room of any slightly unconventional health practitioner’s office. Posted next to the consultation room door, a sign in Spanish sternly warns customers, “I only trust in God. Everyone else pays up front.”

Undeterred, a steady stream of customers comes through the door and takes a seat along the wall, paging through gossip magazines while waiting for their consultations with José Ortiz, the 63 year-old owner who reads cards in the back. They laugh, gossip and complain about their relationships and jobs. Some customers pop in, see the long wait, and decide to come back in a few hours.

“I think the recession has been profitable for us,” says Randy Concepción, 49, who works Ortiz Botánica’s front counter and says appointments are booked for a week or two in advance. “They come, they find conversation, they interact with each other, some of them will leave us their fliers for their own little businesses: taxis, catering, cooking, cleaning, nannies. So we kind of disseminate information for them as well.”

Botánicas -which sell religious and spiritual artifacts and services- have had a long presence in largely Latino enclaves, but their social significance is not always well understood outside the immigrants they cater to, whose spiritual practices were brought to the Americas centuries ago by African slaves and influenced by indigenous and Catholic beliefs. Like the botánicas themselves, these traditions vary across Latin America and have many names: Espiritismo, Santería, Palo Mayombe, Babalawo, Candomblé, Umbanda, and others.

Botánicas are also part of a wider trend in U.S.-Latino entrepreneurship. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners, Hispanic-owned businesses grew by 43.7 percent between 2002 and 2007, more than twice the national rate. As far as small Latino-owned businesses go, botánicas have a targeted market and a specific function: there are thought to be more than 300 in New York City alone, overwhelmingly run by Latino immigrants for the benefit of their communities.

“These businesses, rather than being hurt by the economy, have been flourishing because they provide people with what they need,” says Anahi Viladrich, a medical anthropologist and sociologist who directs the Immigration and Health Initiative (IAHI) at Hunter College. “They are social spaces for community bonding, social support, social capital, areas where people can get access to an accountant who will charge them little money, will show them how to get an application for Section 8 affordable housing, and get a loved one to come back to you.”

This isn’t to say that frequenting botánicas is cheap. Sandra Rossi, who shops at Botánica La Caridad in Queens and inherited the practice of espiritsmo from her mother, says she hasn’t kept track of how much she spends each month.

“Oh, it’s more than $100, much more, because I buy candles and that kind of thing,” says Rossi, who visits La Caridad every week.

Likewise, expenses for a typical 7-day initiation ceremony for practitioners of Mayombe can run upwards of $10,000. “The expense is outrageous,” Concepción says, describing the immense amount of labor and planning that goes into the ceremonies.

But there is a flip side: all that money is being put back into local businesses.

“We buy our stuff from the Spanish markets, the materials that people wear from the Spanish stores, we try to sink it all into our community,” says Concepción, gesturing toward a rack of colorful skirts for sale made by a retired seamstress. “We buy them from her, we put extra money in her pocket, and it helps.”

Botánica La Candelaria in Queens provides a good sampling of the community Concepción describes. Though botánicas are plentiful all along Roosevelt Avenue, the advantage of La Candelaria’s nearly 40-year reputation is clear right away.

Inside, the store is brightly lit and salespeople jostle back and forth behind a long counter, a bulwark against the crowd of customers waiting in line. Most of these customers are botánica owners themselves, launching new businesses or stocking up on supplies for their botánicas in the Bronx, Connecticut, and upstate New York.

At the register, Hansel Baca-Arus and his friends confer over a waist-high stack of cardboard boxes and an army of saint figurines, considering how to move it all outside to their waiting van. “We came here yesterday and we came here today,” says Baca-Arus, 38, whose Oggun Dei Botánica in Freeport, Long Island has been open less than a month. “Today we spent $2000, yesterday we spent $1500, and the week before we spent $1500.”

La Candelaria’s popularity seems to demonstrate that longevity and reputation count big in this business, a sentiment that is echoed by other botánica owners. Deo Parasram, a former computer programmer and part owner of Vandi’s Perfumes and Vandi Religious Supply in Jamaica, Queens, said that Vandi’s started 58 years ago out of the back of the founder’s car on 28th Street in Manhattan. Today, Vandi’s supplies Texas, California, and “pretty much the whole East coast” or about 600 botánicas across the U.S., with its candles, oils and perfumes.

Parasram says his business is doing well and that he’s making 50 percent more profit than he was two or three years ago, allowing him to overhaul the packaging and presentation of his products. “It’s a niche business,” he says of botánicas. “You wouldn’t find our products in a 99 cent store, so it’s not something you can go down the block and find. So when someone needs spiritual help, they go to a botánica. They know where to go.”

Viladrich believes botánicas matter to Latino immigrants in large part because of the major economic and social challenges that many new immigrants face in the U.S.

“Social spending for government subsidized programs has been cut, particularly for immigrant families, so even people who are legally in this country are suffering,” she says. “For people who have no documents, family being deported, no real job making no real money, who don’t speak the language, why are they still here? For the idea that things will become better.”

Aaron, 22, who works at a botánica just off Roosevelt Avenue and declines to give his last name, says he often meets customers who are desperate for help. “People who are really in need are the ones who come in here,” he says. “They’re not just Spanish. Cops come in to the botánica too; it’s not just the stereotypical idea.”

Do all the candles, prayers, and consultations help? “I think it works, to a certain point,” Aaron says. “It works because you say, ‘I did this,’ so they have hope.”

“All of us, not just Latinos, use different forms of healing. Everyone tries to get whatever help to feel better”, says Viladrich, who explains that botánicas provide status, belonging and cultural familiarity to immigrants which sometimes aren’t available anywhere else.

“We don’t want to say ‘oh, they cure’, but they sell the promise of luck, the promise of love, the promise of hope,” she says. “And hope is a highly regarded commodity. If you promise hope, you’re half the way there.”

Nearly four decades after the United States government mandated the use of the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” to categorize Americans who trace their roots to Spanish-speaking countries, a new nationwide survey of Hispanic adults finds that these terms still haven’t been fully embraced by Hispanics themselves. A majority (51%) say they most often identify themselves by their family’s country of origin; just 24% say they prefer a pan-ethnic label.

Moreover, by a ratio of more than two-to-one (69% versus 29%), survey respondents say that the more than 50 million Latinos in the U.S. have many different cultures rather than a common culture. Respondents do, however, express a strong, shared connection to the Spanish language. More than eight-in-ten (82%) Latino adults say they speak Spanish, and nearly all (95%) say it is important for future generations to continue to do so.

Hispanics are also divided over how much of a common identity they share with other Americans. About half (47%) say they consider themselves to be very different from the typical American. And just one-in-five (21%) say they use the term “American” most often to describe their identity. On these two measures, U.S.-born Hispanics (who now make up 48% of Hispanic adults in the country) express a stronger sense of affinity with other Americans and America than do immigrant Hispanics.

The survey finds that, regardless of where they were born, large majorities of Latinos say that life in the U.S. is better than in their family’s country of origin. Also, nearly nine-in-ten (87%) say it is important for immigrant Hispanics to learn English in order to succeed in the U.S.

This report explores Latinos’ attitudes about their identity; their language usage patterns; their core values; and their views about the U.S. and their families’ country of origin. It is based on findings from a national bilingual survey of 1,220 Hispanic adults conducted Nov. 9 through Dec. 7, 2011, by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. (In this report, as in all Center reports, the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used interchangeably).

Among the report’s key findings:

Hispanics and Identity

When it comes to describing their identity, most Hispanics prefer their family’s country of origin over pan-ethnic terms. Half (51%) say that most often they use their family’s country of origin to describe their identity. That includes such terms as “Mexican” or “Cuban” or “Dominican,” for example. Just one-quarter (24%) say they use the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” to most often to describe their identity. And 21% say they use the term “American” most often. “Hispanic” or “Latino”? Most don’t care—but among those who do, “Hispanic” is preferred. Half (51%) say they have no preference for either term. When a preference is expressed, “Hispanic” is preferred over “Latino” by more than a two-to-one margin—33% versus 14%. Most Hispanics do not see a shared common culture among U.S. Hispanics. Nearly seven-in-ten (69%) say Hispanics in the U.S. have many different cultures, while 29% say Hispanics in the U.S. share a common culture. Most Hispanics don’t see themselves fitting into the standard racial categories used by the U.S. Census Bureau. When it comes to race, according to the Pew Hispanic survey, half (51%) of Latinos identify their race as “some other race” or volunteer “Hispanic/Latino.” Meanwhile, 36% identify their race as white, and 3% say their race is black. Latinos are split on whether they see themselves as a typical American. Nearly half (47%) say they are a typical American, while another 47% say they are very different from the typical American. Foreign-born Hispanics are less likely than native-born Hispanics to say they are a typical American—34% versus 66%.

The American Experience

Hispanics say their group has been at least as successful as other minority groups in the U.S. Most Hispanics (55%) say their group is about as successful as other racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. More than one-in-five (22%) say they have been less successful, while 17% say they have been more successful. The U.S. is seen as better than Latinos’ countries of origin in many ways—but not in all ways. Fully 87% of Latino adults say the opportunity to get ahead is better in the U.S. than in the country of their ancestors; some 72% say the U.S. is better for raising children than their home country; nearly seven-in-ten (69%) say the poor are treated better in the U.S.; and a plurality of 44% say moral values are better here than in their homelands. However, when it comes to the strength of family ties, a plurality (39%) say the home country of their ancestors is better, while 33% say the strength of family ties is better in the U.S. Most Hispanic immigrants say they would migrate to the U.S. again. Some 79% of Hispanic immigrants say that if they had to do it all over again, they would come to the U.S. When asked why they came to this country, more than half (55%) of immigrant Hispanics say it was for economic reasons, while 24% say it was for family reasons.

Official Adoption of the Terms “Hispanic” and “Latino”

After a number of years of lobbying by Mexican-American and Hispanic organizations, in 1976 the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 94-311. Called the “Joint resolution relating to the publication of economic and social statistics for Americans of Spanish origin or descent” and sponsored by Rep. Edward Roybal of California, the law mandated the collection of information about U.S. residents of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Central American, South American and other Spanish-speaking country origins (Pub. L. No. 94-311, 1976). Subsequent directives from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 1977 outlined the details of data collection for the federal government. A second OMB directive in 1997 added the term “Latino” to “Hispanic” (Rumbaut, 2006).

The use of the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” to describe Americans of Spanish origin or descent is unique to the U.S. and their meaning continue to change and evolve. Outside of the U.S., these terms are not widely used (National Research Council, 2006) and may also have different meanings.

Even though OMB has developed a formal definition of Hispanicity, in practice the U.S. Census Bureau and others rely on self-reports to determine ethnicity—someone is Hispanic or Latino if they self-identify as Hispanic or Latino (Passel and Taylor, 2009). Using this method, the U.S. Census counted 50.5 million Hispanics in 2010.

Language Use—English and Spanish

Most Hispanics use Spanish, but use of English rises through the generations. The survey finds that 38% of all respondents are Spanish dominant, 38% are bilingual and 24% are English dominant. Among U.S.-born Hispanics, more than half (51%) are English dominant. Hispanics believe learning English is important. Nearly nine-in-ten (87%) Hispanics say adult Hispanic immigrants need to learn English to succeed in the U.S. Hispanics also want future U.S. Hispanic generations to speak Spanish. Fully 95% of Hispanics believe it is very important (75%) or somewhat important (20%) for future generations of Hispanics in the U.S. to be able to speak Spanish.

Social and Political Attitudes

Hispanics, more so than the general public, believe in the efficacy of hard work. Three-in-four (75%) Hispanics say most people can get ahead if they work hard. By contrast, just 58% of the general public say the same. Levels of personal trust are lower among Latinos than they are among the general public. Fully 86% of Latinos say you can’t be too careful when it comes to dealing with people. Among the U.S. general public, just 61% say the same. On some social issues, Latinos hold views similar to the general public, but on others, Latinos are more conservative. Virtually identical shares of Latinos (59%) and the general public (58%) say homosexuality should be accepted by society. However, on abortion, Hispanics hold a more conservative view than the general U.S. public—half (51%) of Hispanics say it should be illegal in most or all cases, compared with 41% of the general public. Religion is more important in the lives of immigrant Hispanics than in the lives of native-born Hispanics. Nearly seven-in-ten (69%) immigrant Hispanics say religion is very important in their lives, compared with half (49%) of U.S.-born Hispanics. Among the general population of the U.S., 58% say religion is very important in their lives. Latinos’ political views are more liberal than those of the general U.S. public. Three-in-ten (30%) Latinos describe their political views as liberal or very liberal, compared with 21% of the general public.